CHAPTER II.
PHYSICAL EVIL DERIVED FROM MORAL.
SECTION I.
DISEASES.
Had mankind never sinned, they would, in all probability, have never known suffering or sorrow. The stream of life would have flowed gently on, as it does in heaven, winding through a perpetual paradise, with flowers adorning and fruit-trees enriching its banks—the flowers of beautiful thoughts,—the fruits, good deeds; with sportive lambs (sweet and innocent affections) frisking in joy by the side of its sparkling waters; healthful breezes would have fanned the landscape, bringing with them pleasantness, freshness, and vigor,—and disease and pain would have been things unknown. And when the allotted period of existence on earth had come to its peaceful end, man would have passed gently away, to enter on a still brighter and unending life in heaven.
That such was the original plan and purpose of the good Creator, in regard to the being He had made, is shown in the revealed Word, which alone can give us information concerning the original state of man. We there learn, that he was placed, at birth or at his creation, in a charming paradise, full of all things beautiful and delightful. Whether that account be taken in a literal or in an allegorical sense, the same general truth is conveyed to the mind, namely, that man was created in a state of happiness. And had he observed the Divine commands,—that is, the laws of Divine order, in which, as declared, he was expressly instructed,—he would, doubtless, have continued in that happy state; and human life would have been, as above described, a paradisiacal and joyous one.
But man, abusing that freedom of thought and action, which (as shown in the preceding Chapter) necessarily belonged to him as man,—disobeyed the Divine commands, violated the laws of Divine order, and so, perverting his moral nature, precipitated himseIf into evil. With moral disorder came physical disorder, as cause produces effect. The body was created to be the servant and instrument of the mind; and, discharging those its proper functions, it responds to, and, as it were, sympathizes with the mind's varying states. When the master is bright and cheerful, the servant, reflecting its master's look, is brisk and alert, also,—ready to do cheerily it's lord's will and pleasure, when the master is dull, the servant is heavy and languid, too. The body is quickly and correspondingly affected by the changing states of the mind. It is also the case, indeed, that the body reacts and influences the mental states. And especially, in man's present depraved and disordered condition, when the servant has been so long allowed to rule,—when the sensual passions and appetites have been so long given way to, and have been permitted to tyrannise over, to brutalize, and almost to destroy, man's higher and purer nature,—the order of things with many seems at length to have become almost completely inverted, and the healthful or disordered state of the body seems to determine the state of the whole man. The subject mind, having lost both its mastery and its independence, waits humbly on the condition and- will of the body, and expects from it all its pleasures or its pains. Bat such was not the original order. It was intended that the nobler soul should have and keep the body in subjection; and, so holding it in subjection, should keep it at the same time in its proper condition. Such was the case at the beginning; and then both were healthful and both at peace.
But with sin came disease and consequent suffering; for sin and pain necessarily go together, as obedience and peace go together. For, as heretofore shown, sin or evil is moral disorder, a derangement of the faculties and affections of the mind; and as the body was created the servant and instrument of the mind, and so was placed in such relation to the mind as to answer to all its states, consequently disorder in the mind produced disorder in the body, as cause produces effect. Thus sin produced disease. The manner in which this effect was brought about, has been thus explained by a profound writer—"Diseases correspond to the lusts and passions of the mind, in which also they have their origin. For the origins of diseases, in general, are intemperance, luxuries of various kinds, pleasures merely corporeal, also envyings, hatreds, revenges, lasciviousness, and, the like; which things destroy man's interiors, and when these are destroyed, the exteriors also suffer, and draw man into disease and, thus to death.—Sin is all that which is contrary to Divine order. Hence it shuts up the finest and quite invisible vessels, of which the next larger vessels, also invisible, are composed (for the most minute and invisible vessels extend even to man's interiors). Thus is produced the first and inmost obstruction, and thence the first and inmost vitiation of the blood; which vitiation, when it increases, causes disease, and thence death."[1]
But, whatever be the precise manner in which the effect is produced, the fact is certain; for every day's experience bears witness to its truth. As that which caused the Fall in the beginning—namely, self-love and disobedience to the Divine laws,—is still every day causing a yet deeper fall, or confirming the evil effects of the original fall, in man's mind,—so is that which produced disease at first, still and continually operating to produce disease. We can see the original course of things in the present course of things. Every physician knows that physical maladies are daily produced or aggravated in individuals by their disorders of mind and life; as by self-indulgence and intemperance, but, what is still more striking, by the immediate operation of evil passions. Says the writer just quoted "the mind so operates upon the body as to disturb and vitiate the blood; as when the mind desires anything which it fails to realise, it becomes so angry, so enraged and furious, that the blood becomes heated, and the bile is so copiously expelled from its duct, that fever seizes upon the viscera, and in some cases the intestines are so affected as to be twisted into a knot (Iliac passion.) It is said that a violent fit of rage, or sometimes even intense anxiety, will so vitiate a mother's milk, as to hurt the child. "It is no new or uncertain doctrine," says Dr. Combe, "that the quality of the mother's milk is affected by her own health and conduct» and that, in its turn, directly affects the health of the nursing. Even medicines given to the parent act upon the child through the medium of the milk; and a sudden fit of anger or other violent emotion, has not unfrequently been observed to change the quality of the fluid, so much as to produce purging and gripes in the child. Care and anxiety, in like manner, exert a most pernicious influence, and not only diminish the quantity, but vitiate the quality, of the milk."[2] Here, we have a striking proof of the immediate action of the mind upon the body,—of mental disorder instantaneously producing physical derangement, having the power to corrupt the purest juices of the system, and even to extend its deleterious effects to a second individual,—to communicate disorder and pain to an innocent infant. So powerful and so immediate is moral evil in producing physical.
The case just adduced leads to the consideration of the subject from a second point of view. It may be said—admitting that evil or disorder in the mind has the effect sometimes of immediately producing disease in the body, and admitting that it was the original cause of disease,—yet, is it not also true that a great portion of the disease and consequent suffering existing in the world, has no direct, or at least no visible, connection with moral evil or sin in the individual patient? the greatest sinners are not always the greatest sufferers: bad men often enjoy good physical health, while the good are often afflicted with disease: and look at little infants, who cannot have been guilty of any sin,—how distressing to see them writhing and tossing their little limbs in pain. How can this be explained? and why does a God of goodness permit it? In reply to these inquiries, it may be remarked in general, that special exceptions, even though numerous, do not invalidate the truth of a well established and obvious principle; because various collateral circumstances may prevent the immediate operation of that principle. Bad men may sometimes, for a time or even throughout life, enjoy good physical health, for several reasons. They may, in the first place, inherit from their parents a robust physical constitution, such as is not easily broken down; or they may dwell in peculiarly healthy districts; or be engaged in healthy and active out-door employments: all which circumstances go to produce and sustain the health of the body. For though it is most true that the body is powerfully acted upon by the state of the mind, yet it is not influenced solely by that, but is greatly affected by surrounding and outward influences, also. Being material itself, it is immediately and powerfully operated on by material influences, whether deleterious or healthful. But, there are higher considerations to be presented. In the dispensations of an All-wise and merciful Providence, who is good to all, who, as His Word declares, is "kind even to the unthankful and the evil," and whose first object is the reformation and salvation of men's souls,—it may be so ordered that unregenerate men shall, in certain cases, retain physical health, as a means to the healing of the soul; lest if pressed upon too severely by the hand of sickness, when they are not in a state to endure it, they may grow mad and desperate, and perhaps inflict self-destruction. While, on the other hand, the good—those who are looking to heaven, and willing and anxious to be led thither, even though it be through tbe thorny path of disease and bodily pain,—are permitted, in the good providence of the Lord, to pass through much distress and suffering both of body and mind and through the fiery trials of earthly adversity; in order that they may come forth at last, purified and perfected, and fit for the kingdom of heaven: "Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth."
The case of infant sufferers is a different one. It is, indeed, distressing to witness bodily sufferings in a little innocent, who we feel can have done nothing to deserve or bring upon itself such pain; and the afflicted parent feels, at such times, almost disposed to complain and to cry out, "Why, O God, dost thou permit this,—why dost thou not put a stop to this agony?" And why does He not stop it? Why does He not cause it to cease? Think you it is because the All-wise and All-merciful God either is ignorant of, or indifferent to, it? It cannot be; for He has expressly declared, in His own Word, that His love is more tender than that even of a mother for her offspring:—"Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee."[3] Indeed, from whom does the tender mother receive her love for her children, as well as every other good affection, but from Him who is Love itself, and the one Source of all pure love? How then can our Heavenly Father be indifferent to the cries of His children in distress (whether infant or adult)? He is not indifferent; nor, being Omniscient and Omnipresent, can He be either ignorant or unobservant of it. Why, then, does He not prevent or put an end to it? Because He is a God of wisdom as well as of love; and in His infinite wisdom, He has established certain laws of Divine order, which cannot be violated without producing lasting injury to the human family,—without introducing inextricable confusion and disorder, and causing distress far greater than a temporary suspension of those laws, if such a thing even were possible, would alleviate. One of these laws is that of hereditary transmission, by which qualities and states both of body and mind descend from parents to their offspring. The existence of this law is a condition, necessarily attendant upon the great relation of parent and child, by means of which the human race, once created, was to be continued. And this last provision was plainly ordained by a wise and good Providence, as a chief source of human happiness. It is the basis of all the delightful family ties, of all the closest social relations, and the very foundation of social order. Were every human being created separately from all others, and directly from the Almighty Creator as the first man was, it is plain to see that the whole fabric of social order would be changed. There would be no tender relations of father, and mother, son and daughter, brother and sister, or any other family connections. Each human beings would be an isolated creature, with no dependence upon or connection with any other; he would pursue his solitary course through the world, without guardian or friend, other than such chance connections as outward circumstances might lead him to form; and he would at length drop out of existence, as he came into it, uncared-for, unnoticed, and unknown. Would such a state of things be tolerable? Can we even conceive of its existence, or of its continuance for any length of time? A moment's reflection, then, on these considerations, will suffice to show the wisdom of that law of Divine order, by which it was ordained that human beings should be created not directly as at first, but indirectly through the instrumentality of other human beings;—in a word, that existence should be inherited from one to another, thus establishing at once the tender relation of parent and child, and all the other family and social ties.
But, this being understood, it will at once be seen that to this order of things a condition is attached. If existence be inherited, it necessarily follows that the quality of the existence will depend, in some degree at least, on the character and state of those from whom it is inherited. All, indeed, receive the principle of life directly from the Divine Being, who is Life itself and the sole Source of Life: and this is communicated to man, not merely at birth, but every moment afresh from its Divine Fountain. There is no such thing therefore as inheriting life: man merely inherits from his parents, organisms, or organic forms, fit to receive the life as it flows in from God. These organisms are two, a spiritual and a material: namely, the soul or mind, which is a spiritual organism, and the body which is a material organism. Now it is plain that the inherited organisms in the child, must be similar to those of the parents, resembling either the one parent or the other, or, more usually, partaking of the characters of both. Thus, then, the qualities of parents, both mental and physical, must descend to their offspring; in variously modified forms, indeed, such as are presented in the different dispositions and bodily states of children of the same family, yet having a common fundamental plane or groundwork; just, as there is a general family likeness, yet with various modifications of feature and expression. All experience testifies to this truth. That qualities both of body and mind are inherited, not only with man bat also with the inferior animals, is matter of every day's observation. How groundless, then, it may be remarked, is the idea, entertained by some, that every infant's soul is created in a state of purity, and that all the evil it afterwards shows, comes by education and the influence of circumstances. Such a view is, in fact, as, unphilosophical and as contrary to all experience, as it is opposed to the teachings of Revelation. It arises from confounding the life which flows in from God, with the mind or spiritual organism that receives the life. These,—as shown a moment ago, as often also in previous parts of this work—are two quite distinct things. The life flowing in from God, is indeed pure and purity itself; and He gives it one and the same to all men,—"as He makes His sun to rise alike on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." But that life receives its modification and change, according to the character of the mind, soul, or spiritual organism into which it flows,—just as the pure rays of light from the sun are changed into different colours, according to the structure of the recipient objects. That life, flowing into the soul of a bad man, which is in a perverted and distorted state, becomes qualified and changed accordingly,—being turned from love into hate, from the gentle flame of benevolence and affection into the fire of malevolence and rage. Supposing, then, such a man to produce a son,—that son cannot but inherit his parent's organisms, both mental and physical; and consequently the life from the Divine Being flowing into him cannot but be modified and perverted accordingly; and hence he will manifest tendencies or propensities to evils such as his parent has indulged in. During the period of infancy, indeed, these evil propensities are covered over with a veil, as it were, of innocence, which belongs to the infantile age. But no discerning person will mistake such outside innocence for the real character of the child; for the young of all animals, even tigers and panthers, show a similar playfulness and harmlessness: but time infallibly tears off the bright envelopment and exposes the dark qualities within; or rather, these break through of themselves, and show their real character,—as the viper bursts its shell. Inherited evil tendencies indeed, derived from the one parent, may be modified in a degree by opposite qualities in the other; and they may also be, and ought to be, greatly counteracted by education; so that, with Divine aid, the son of a bad man may yet, if he will, grow up a good one.[4] Would that it were always so! But these considerations do not affect the truth of the law, which both sound reason and Revelation, as well as all experience, attest. "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me[5]," is the express declaration of the Divine Word; and the principles, which have been presented, explain the grounds of this truth.
Now, the existence of this great law of hereditary transmission (intended originally for man's good and happiness, but which, when perverted from its proper course, becomes, like every other good abused, a source of unhappiness) explains the fact of both evils and diseases existing with infants and children. For, if mental qualities are inherited, still more manifestly are bodily ones. The diseases under which children suffer, may be divided into two classes, namely, special or peculiar diseases, and general or common diseases. The former are sometimes such as are referable to the hereditary law, and sometimes not. There are, for instance, certain forms of disease existing in particular families, and which are plainly to be traced to parents or grandparents, as consumptive tendencies, scrofula, and many more. But there are others that are consequent upon want of care on the part of parents in reference to their children, as subjecting them to exposures and consequent colds, permitting undue indulgence of appetite, and the like: also, such as come from the direct ill-conduct and evils of parents,—as in the case above referred to, of the mother's milk becoming vitiated through anger and rage. It may be said, in regard to such cases, that it is very hard that the poor infant should suffer for its parent's wrong-doing. But how can such an effect possibly be prevented? It results from the abuse or perverted operation of a good and blessed law of Divine Providence, ordained for man's happiness,—namely, the law of social and family relationship and connection. It was ordained, as before shown, that the hereditary principle should exist, and that men should be brought up, not isolated beings, but in families. This was so ordered, that human happiness might be indefinitely increased by the influence of social and family ties, the affections and good feelings in the heart of each individual not being confined to himself, but being poured out on those immediately about him first, and thence farther to the whole world—thus immensely enhancing the sum total of human enjoyment. Hence the close connection of parents and children, brothers and sisters, and other relations. But closeness of connection, where evil and not good prevails, causes increase of pain instead of pleasure,—necessarily produces suffering instead of enjoyment. If therefore the parent be evil, or give way to evils at times, the children must suffer in a greater or less degree, because that near and powerful influence of one over the other, which was intended for blessing, is, by the parent's fault, turned into a source of grief and pain. It would, plainly, be very unjust, in such cases, to throw the blame upon the general law and upon the Lawgiver who established it, rather than upon the parent who perverts the benign influences of that law into injurious ones. Parents and children are necessarily associated most closely together, and therefore must be affected by the state and conduct of each other: for good if both are good,—for evil, if both or either is evil.
By the second class of diseases,—those that are common or general,—are meant those which nearly all children at the present day seem necessitated to pass through,—such as measles, whooping-cough, and some others. It certainly is a very remarkable thing, (if, despite its commonness, we can look at the evil in its real deformity), that the whole or a very large part of the human family should have to enter upon existence through these doors of disease—with these monstrous figures (as they might be represented) meeting and seizing us at the threshold. If the principle be a true one, that physical disorder comes from mental,—that disease is derived originally from evil, then would not such universal prevalence of certain diseases prove the existence of certain general forms of hereditary evil, deeply fixed in the heart of common humanity at the present day? Doubtless this is the truth; and it would be a most interesting subject of investigation, to ascertain what special forms of evil or moral disorder those universal physical disorders are derived from and correspond to. The day, perhaps, will come, when science, which at present concerns itself too exclusively with effects, will be able to rise more into the region of causes, and then such subjects will claim its earnest attention.
To a source, somewhat similar, may doubtless be ascribed these terrible epidemics, which prevail almost constantly in some parts of the world, and which at times come forth and spread themselves over nearly the whole earth, committing fearful ravages: such as the Asiatic cholera, and the plague. It is not unreasonable to suppose, that the occasional prevalence of such maladies is dependent chiefly on certain peculiar moral states of mankind, from the fact that it does not seem to be affected by physical condition,—penetrating all countries, regardless of climate or situation, and entering all households, the palace as well as the hovel; and though extreme filth and uncleanness may aggravate its violence, yet no degree of cleanness or external order and comfort seems able to ward off the destroyer. What peculiar states of moral disorder such pestilences are analogous to, it may not indeed be easy to discover. Yet much might perhaps be learned on this important subject, were the attention of the scientific drawn more forcibly to it,—the position being first taken that the prevalence of such scourges is to be ascribed, in part at least, if not chiefly, to moral causes. Such admission would open the eyes of observers to many facts, which otherwise would be passed over as irrelevant. It would not be wise indeed to draw hasty conclusions on so large a subject, or to draw general inferences from a few scattered facts. But contemplating, for instance, that horrid pestilence, the Plague,—the thought has sometimes presented itself, whether there might not be some relation between that fearful pestilence and a state of general moral impurity. It is known that the Plague is continually to be found in Oriental countries, where the institution of polygamy exists, and a consequent sphere of unchasteness must prevail. Looking, too, at some of the periods when it has extended itself over Europe, or particular countries of it, does not history show the existence of a similar state of moral corruption? England, for instance, was visited by it, in the reign of the licentious and shameless Charles II., when from the court downward a state of moral impurity seems to have spread through all classes: and as if in consequence of such wickedness, as well as to put a check to it,—the Plague, one year, and the great fire, the next, ravaged London to its heart.
But, indeed, a state of general moral disease, in the present condition of the world, is, alas! too prevalent amongst mankind at all times and everywhere. Could we see ourselves as we really are,—could we view the state of the human race, as it is seen by the eye of angels, still more as it appears to the Divine Eye,—we should rather wonder that the universal corruption prevailing did not at once break out into a general pestilence all over the world, rather than that the terrible visitations of the plague or cholera occasionally occur, carrying off their hundreds and their thousands. The approach of those pestilences, indeed, acts merely as the application of a torch to kindle the sulphurous materials just ready to burst into a flame. We read occasionally, in the newspapers, of cases of spontaneous combustion, which the physical system, inflamed to the highest point by habitual excess, by having the liquid fire of alcohol continually poured into it, and stimulated no doubt by the internal fire of all bad passions at the same time—at length actually bursts out into a flame, consuming the living man, body and clothes. How horrid a picture! Would not such a burning man seem to represent in fearful form the state of the spirit within, blazing with "the fire that is not quenched?" Physicians can tell fearful tales of the ravages of disease, proceeding directly from sinful indulgences and moral corruption; disease, in which rottenness pervades the marrow and bones, and eats away the very features of the face—leaving the man a horrid monument of his own evil, and a dreadful proof of the correspondence that exists between moral disease and physical.
That there exists a direct connection between physical and moral disorders, or between bodily disease and sin, is very distinctly taught in the pages of Holy Writ. Was it not declared in a very striking manner to the Israelites, that if they would live in a state of obedience to the Divine commandments, that is, in a state of moral and spiritual order, they would be blessed with all outward comforts and enjoyments, as well as inward peace,—health of body and health of mind; but that, if they disobeyed, and lived in a state of contrariety to those laws, they would suffer every discomfort and disorder both of mind and body?—that the "pestilence would clave" to them, and they would be smitten with "a consumption and a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning;"—that they would suffer with "the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch;"—that they would be "smitten in the knees and in the legs with a sore botch that could not be healed, from the sole of the foot to the top of the head;" that they would have "great plagues and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses."[6] Here we find it foretold to that people that physical disorders and bodily sufferings would be the direct consequence of mental disorders and indulgence in sin. What was true then, is true now: the laws of the human constitution are the same. Indulgence in evil, and a life in opposition to the laws of Divine order, are sure, sooner or later, to bring physical evil and suffering in their train. The consequence is as certain as the law of cause and effect. And what makes this consequence far sadder, is that the pain does not always end with the guilty individual himself, but by the law of hereditary transmission before spoken of as necessarily existing and ordained originally for wise purposes,—disease and suffering are oftentimes handed down to children and posterity. This thought should be an additional incentive to a man, to refrain from evil courses and sinful indulgences, lest not only he himself be the sufferer, but also his innocent descendants.
The analogy between physical and moral diseases is strikingly set forth in the language of the prophet Isaiah: "The whole head," says he, "is sick and the whole heart faint: from the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores."[7] The prophet is here describing the corrupt moral state of the Jewish nation, and he pictures it by the figure of a human body, full of corruption and loathsomeness, and diseased from head to foot. And such, no doubt, in the Divine sight, appears the spirit of man, when filled with wickedness and moral corruption: and what is true of a single individual, must be the case also with a whole nation and people in a similar state. Is it any wonder, then, when the spirit is in such a state of moral disorder, that the body, which has its life from the spirit, should be filled with impurity and disease also? and that, when a whole people or all mankind is in such a state, pestilences should break out and ravage whole countries and go through the world? Let not men, then, (as they are too apt to do) ascribe these scourges of humanity to the Hand of their Heavenly Father above, who is Love and Goodness itself,—who is a Saviour, not a destroyer,—but to their own state of corruption and sin, which is the sole cause of their suffering.
That there is a direct connection between sin and disease, was very plainly declared by our Lord Himself, in His treatment of the sick, when upon earth. To the man, "sick of the palsy," brought to Him "lying on a bed," He said first, "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee:" and afterwards He told him to take up his bed, and go to his house.[8] So to the one whom He cured at the Pool of Bethesda, and who had been a sufferer for thirty-eight years. He said, in a striking manner, "Behold, thou art made whole; sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee."[9] Do not these express words of our Saviour testify that there is, in many cases at least, a direct connection between sin and bodily disease, like that of cause and effect, showing that in such cases, physical evil is immediately derived from moral evil? That this connection does not show itself in all instances, and that it is not always the case that bad men are diseased and good men healthy—is indeed true; and some of the reasons assignable for these variations from the general rule have been already stated. But these occasional variations, as before remarked, do not affect at all the general fact of the connection between physical and moral disease, nor the truth of the principle that all disease in the human race sprang originally from sin on the part of man, and that such state of disease is continually maintained and aggravated by man's continued sinfulness.
Reviewing, then, the facts and considerations which have been presented in this Section, going to show that disorder of body sprang from disorder of mind,—disease from sin,—and connecting this truth with the great principle sought to be demonstrated in the preceding Chapter, that man, not God, is the author of sin or moral evil,—we at once perceive the justness of the conclusion which it was our chief purpose to draw,—namely, that the wide-spread sorrow and suffering consequent upon bodily disease and sickness, which we see around us in the world, is not to be ascribed to God, but altogether to man himself. Our kind Lord above, instead of causing pain to man, is most desirous to alleviate and soothe his sorrows and distress, as far as it is possible to be done. How tenderly is He described by the Psalmist as standing as it were, unseen, by the sick bed,—the great Physician, seeking to sustain and comfort the suffererer: "The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness."[10] How feelingly also is it declared, that "He doth not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men[11];" thus, that if sorrows, if pains of body or of mind, are allowed occasionally to come upon the good, they are permitted only as the means of their more complete purification, and thus of bringing them ultimately to still higher goodness and happiness, both here and hereafter. "Every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." With such, truly may it be said in the sweet language of the Psalmist, "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." Soon will the pains and sorrows of this life be over, and then will our eyes open on the light of a new and everlasting day, in those peaceful realms where "there is no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, neither shall be any more pain, for the former things are passed away."